92 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



A very few observing farmers ventured to predict its appear- 

 ance during very wet summers succeeding very dry ones. 

 They did not know vrhy this was the case, but it was a fact 

 they had learned from experience. It was also known that 

 the worm attacked only the grasses and cereals, that it was 

 gregarious in its habits, and that it disappeared suddenly, in 

 a manner as seemingly mysterious as that in which its advent 

 was supposed to have been made. These few facts were 

 about the only ones of real value, respecting the habits of 

 this insect, that could be gleaned from the statements of 

 those who had suffered most from its ravages; while the 

 subject seems to have been, up to that time, entirely ignored 

 by entomological writers. In 1861, however, its very general 

 appearance, and the vast amount of damage it did, attracted 

 the attention not only of farmers, but of several well-known 

 entomologists, among whom may be mentioned our late 

 friends, Walsh of Illinois and Kirkpatrick of Ohio ; and 

 Cyrus Thomas of Illinois, Dr. Fitch of New York, and J. H. 

 Klippart of Ohio. As might have been expected, diverse 

 conclusions were arrived at, and various theories entertained 

 by these writers, and some very spirited correspondence 

 between Messrs. Walsh and Thomas and Walsh and Klip- 

 part may be found in old files of both the 'Ohio Farmer' and 

 the * Prairie Farmer.* 



The principal point of dispute was, whether the army 

 worm wintered in the egg or chrysalis state, and, as a con- 

 sequence, whether it was single- or double-brooded. It is 

 needless to follow these gentlemen in their discussions, which 

 were frequently caustic and pungent, but sometimes partook 

 more of the character of personal wrangling than of a calm 

 and conscientious search after truth. Two of the five parties 

 mentioned above are now in their graves, and while one of 

 those yet living — Mr. Cyrus Thomas — believed in the two- 

 brooded character of the insect, the other two evade the 

 question entirely. Mr. Walsh took the ground that it was 

 single-brooded, and the experience of the past year has con- 

 vinced me that he was correct. The army worm, like all 

 other insects, hatches from an egg, and this egg is evidently 

 deposited by the parent moth at the base of perennial grass- 

 stalks. In Southern Missouri it hatches out about the middle 

 of April, in the central part of the State about the 1st, and in 



